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Step 1: put the macbook in the box.
Step 2: make your woman open the box.
Step 3: party with your box.
 
Regardless of her sentiment as to recieving your laptop, theres one more thing to consider.

To her friends, and family, you are going to look like the douvche boyfriend who gave her a handmedown machine. Get her a new one, and you become the sweet, awesome boyfriend.

Solution: ebay your mbp, get her a mb, buy yourself a unibody mbp

everyone wins.
 
Regardless of her sentiment as to recieving your laptop, theres one more thing to consider.

To her friends, and family, you are going to look like the douvche boyfriend who gave her a handmedown machine. Get her a new one, and you become the sweet, awesome boyfriend.

Solution: ebay your mbp, get her a mb, buy yourself a unibody mbp

everyone wins.

Epic. Genius.
 
Regardless of her sentiment as to recieving your laptop, theres one more thing to consider.

To her friends, and family, you are going to look like the douvche boyfriend who gave her a handmedown machine. Get her a new one, and you become the sweet, awesome boyfriend.

Solution: ebay your mbp, get her a mb, buy yourself a unibody mbp

everyone wins.

you know your relationship. you know your girl. do what you think is best in your heart. they would be pretty shallow ppl if they base their like or dislike of you based on what you get their daughter or friend for a gift.
 
We're in our mid/early 20's, this'll be our first anniversary.

A Macbook pro for your 1st anniversary - dating? That's hilarious! You'll be happy to know, that she'll be using it to email her next boyfriend, whilst using his pic as her desktop background, on her shiny new mac, courtesy of you :apple:
 
Why not buy a refurbished UMBP and persent your girlfriend with both, allowing her to chose which one she prefers... This way she has to make the decision and she will be happy. No double talk, innuendoes or headaches for you. Hopefully she will choose your old machine (smiling) and you will luck out keeping the UMBP and come across as the best boyfriend she has ever had. ;)
 
Nobody has come up with the option of dumping the girlfriend and pocketing the money.

If you are a true machead then you should treat her like a mac. Get rid before the 1 year warrenty is up and get a new one :D
 
Hey everybody,

My girlfriend and I are used to spending a fair amount on each other for special occasions. For our anniversary, I'm getting her a laptop. She's not particular about mac models, but she really enjoys the backlit keyboard option. In fact, she said she'd love to adopt my Early '08 MBP, which would mean a tasty new laptop for me!

So, here are my options:

A. Give her my last gen Macbook Pro and buy a refurb unibody Macbook pro for myself. The one I'm giving away is 15", 2.5 Ghz, 250 GB hdd, 4 GB ram, about 4 months old. Est. cost of new one for myself = $1800

B. Buy her a refurb 2.4 unibody MacBook and keep my last gen MBP. Est. cost of a new one for her = $1500


Any help is appreciated, and no, I'm not posting pictures ;)

C. Don't.
 
C. Don't.

Agreed. Nothing worse than getting bitten by the love bug. It takes away your ability to reason.

I don't know what's worse here: wrapping a gift for a gf that you've used (albeit a very nice gift) or spending $1k on a girl you've known for one year.

When in doubt, buy jewelry.
 
@macdonalds: the loss of rationalization might be the case here. the laptop might as well be a ring....unless this is a purely sugar-daddy type of thing, then that would explain it:)
 
Unless you make 6 figures, there is NO reason why you should give the girlfriend a laptop for a 1 year anniversary present.

You can say true love, and yada yada and whatever, but this girl ASKED for your expensive laptop as a GIFT and you have been DATING for a year.

I say your best option is to buy her something significantly cheaper. The focus should be on your effort, not the cost of the gift. Do something she likes, take her somewhere, do something out of the ordinary, but don't spend a huge sum of money, especially when so young. I regret buying a gf I truly fell for a $200 bracelet, and that is a much smaller investment then a laptop. Most people typically only buy the wife a laptop, when people have pooled their funds together anyway. You need to think about the situation and the future. Maybe you guys get married, maybe you break up, but remember that this laptop will never find it's way back to you, and having a bf or gf in todays times is hardly the committed relationship it used to be. If you were to break-up in 6 months, she could take the computer and be gone.

I advise you to be more wary of spending so much money on this person, rather then deciding which of A and B is better. Use logic, not emotion, when making such a big purchase. If she would be disappointed you didn't buy her such an expensive gift, then you may need to re-evaluate your relationship with her.

However, this is only MY opinion since I have been burned in the past. If you disagree, then feel free to do whatever you want. It's your hard earned money man. You can spend it however you wish. I just want to advise caution, and maybe help prevent you from doing something you may come to regret.

Now, if I had to choose between A and B, it is hard to say without knowing the girl. I like the suggestion of getting her a 13' unibody macbook (upgrade with keyboard backlight) that cost $1599 new or $1399 refurb in the apple store.)
 
why? because it is bizarre compared to what "normally" happens in relationships. this may not be an advice forum but you are subject to our opinion and past experiences; if you can't handle the heat, get outta the kitchen. i personally think giving her a laptop is odd but, hey, it is your money. if she (unfortunately) bolts with the laptop, i'd pay to see that "Oh Snap, what just happened?" look.

it not your place to decide how this guy spends his money. and the fact that you would pay money to see this guy's gf hurt him is pretty screwed up. did you have this happen to you? if not then you dont have any experience to give him advice on what he should do in a relationship sense.

giving her his old laptop that she loves is a good option. he can get him self a new one and give her his old one. its a great gift and with coast of cleaning and upgrading it should be a "reasonable" gift. and he is also spending money on just himself instead of her.
 
it not your place to decide how this guy spends his money. and the fact that you would pay money to see this guy's gf hurt him is pretty screwed up. did you have this happen to you? if not then you dont have any experience to give him advice on what he should do in a relationship sense.

giving her his old laptop that she loves is a good option. he can get him self a new one and give her his old one. its a great gift and with coast of cleaning and upgrading it should be a "reasonable" gift. and he is also spending money on just himself instead of her.

i wouldn't wish hurt on the guy but this affair has a stinky aura about it and he should sense it. i mean, come on, doesn't dating a chick for a less than a year and then have her ask for something as pricey as a lappy not bring up flags? even if he made 6 figures, it is good practice to still think twice about handing out your dough even if it is to some chick you feel you've known thoroughly after dating for only a year. something similar happened to me but i didn't loose anything significant except that I think back and realize things could have been way, way worse had I not paid more attention. my story isn't unique either and there are tons of folks who wish they thought about things more instead of being blinded by passion so easily. some chicks can be pretty cruel and them taking advantage of guys happen all too often. all i am saying is let your brain do the thinking and tread carefully...

i agree that giving the old laptop is a better choice because he is being careful and not giving the impression that he'd do anything for her. you have to ration gifts out for the women you just met because you don't know what their real intentions might be.
 
Watch out man. It would suck hard if you got her that sweet umbp and she drops a card and a new wallet on you. I'd be less worried with what way to give her a laptop and more concerned with establishing an agreed upon spending limit for your anniversary so you are insured of not getting hosed.:cool:
 
Unless you make 6 figures, there is NO reason why you should give the girlfriend a laptop for a 1 year anniversary present.

You can say true love, and yada yada and whatever, but this girl ASKED for your expensive laptop as a GIFT and you have been DATING for a year.

I say your best option is to buy her something significantly cheaper. The focus should be on your effort, not the cost of the gift. Do something she likes, take her somewhere, do something out of the ordinary, but don't spend a huge sum of money, especially when so young.

I agree
 
i wouldn't wish hurt on the guy but this affair has a stinky aura about it and he should sense it. i mean, come on, doesn't dating a chick for a less than a year and then have her ask for something as pricey as a lappy not bring up flags? even if he made 6 figures, it is good practice to still think twice about handing out your dough even if it is to some chick you feel you've known thoroughly after dating for only a year. something similar happened to me but i didn't loose anything significant except that I think back and realize things could have been way, way worse had I not paid more attention. my story isn't unique either and there are tons of folks who wish they thought about things more instead of being blinded by passion so easily. some chicks can be pretty cruel and them taking advantage of guys happen all too often. all i am saying is let your brain do the thinking and tread carefully...

i agree that giving the old laptop is a better choice because he is being careful and not giving the impression that he'd do anything for her. you have to ration gifts out for the women you just met because you don't know what their real intentions might be.

i see what you are saying but i think we should just let him do what hes going to do. i dont think that we will be able to persuade him not to buy his gf a laptop. he is in love and his 1 year aniversary is coming up. it is a big deal. if he truly loves her than material objects are irrevlevent. if they end up splitting up its going to hurt pretty much the same wheather he bought her a laptop or a rose.
 
Woah Woah Woah, hold on there lol!!!

If you get a MBP, don't buy refurbished from Apple! You can save so much more money by buying from an Apple authorized reseller online. I just got a Unibody Macbook Pro (2.4Ghz) from Club mac for a total of 1683 + Shipping total, after rebate and Microsoft Live cashback of 3.1% (Kinda funny when you think about it lol). Keep in mind, I also paid no taxes either, so that's over 100 dollars saved (120 in my case). The initial price was 1868 minus 125 rebate, and subtract the 60 bucks I'm getting back from MS Live search.
You gotta go check out this site http://www.pcprices.net because there's so much money to be saved in my opinion. If you can afford to wait/do rebates, its the way to go, not to mention its brand new in addition to cheaper! Just make sure you find a place that doesn't charge tax and you're set. Also, if you're not familiar with Live Cashback, make sure you read up a lil before hand and do it right :)

PS I just looked and it doesn't look like you can get a Macbook any cheaper than Apple refurbished, but if you add the tax onto a refurbished 2.4 Macbook costing 1399 (7% where I live), it'd costs you 100 dollars more at 1500ish, thus making the MBP I listed above only cost 183 dollars more!

I'd just get the new MBP from Clubmac, and then decide whether you wanna keep it or give it to her. Anyway, I hope I helped you a lil here with decision, assuming you can wait for the rebates or perhaps I made it even more confusing lol.
Goodluck with your decision! :)
 
i see what you are saying but i think we should just let him do what hes going to do. i dont think that we will be able to persuade him not to buy his gf a laptop. he is in love and his 1 year aniversary is coming up. it is a big deal. if he truly loves her than material objects are irrevlevent. if they end up splitting up its going to hurt pretty much the same wheather he bought her a laptop or a rose.

i agree.
 
I agree, regardless what she said, and I didn't even consider the specs, but, IMHO, you are a loser boyfriend if you give her your smeared up laptop while you get a new (albeit refurbed) one.

Give her something she gets "fresh" from Apple.
 
I agree, regardless what she said, and I didn't even consider the specs, but, IMHO, you are a loser boyfriend if you give her your smeared up laptop while you get a new (albeit refurbed) one.

Give her something she gets "fresh" from Apple.

a loser huh?:rolleyes: i don't know what makes him a loser since she is a getting laptop for free that she wouldn't have to spend any money on at all. getting a free early 08 MBP is NOT a shabby deal at all!
 
Keep your computer for yourself and buy your gf the new one, or the "new refurb".



Actually, don't buy her a computer. It's a ridiculous gift for a 1 year anniversary. Get her something meaningful.
 
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